Vehicles are equipped with seat belts wherein a seat belt is drawn across the occupant's body and secured to a buckle, which is fixedly secured to the vehicle. In a latched condition, when the seat belt is secured to the buckle, a portion of the webbing is drawn across and contacts a portion of the user's body. Some vehicle seat belt systems also have a webbing retraction mechanism that retracts the webbing inducing a predetermined amount of tension into the webbing when the seat belt is in a latched condition. This initial tension keeps the webbing close to the user's body.
In addition, vehicle seat belt systems also include a locking mechanism that locks the webbing from further unwinding when a predetermined condition is sensed (e.g. deceleration of the vehicle or abrupt tugging on the belt). Although tension in the webbing is desirable, it can result in unwanted rubbing of the webbing against the user's body due to vibration encountered during operation of the vehicle, especially when the webbing has been locked from further unwinding. For example, vehicles such as trucks with stiff suspensions experience a rougher ride than most passenger vehicles. Consequently, the constant rubbing of the webbing against a user's body can wear the user's clothes or otherwise be quite annoying. In addition, the locked webbing prevents the user from leaning forward or making other relatively close movements. Therefore, it is desirable to provide the user with a means to quickly introduce an amount of looseness or slack into the webbing drawn across his or her body. Additionally, it is also desirable to provide a device that can be releasably secured to the webbing but does not wear or damage the webbing or otherwise compromise the intended performance of the webbing in securing the user to the vehicle seat. In addition, it is also desirable to provide an apparatus that will not interfere with the operation of a pretensioner secured to the seat belt webbing or seat belt buckle to which the webbing is coupled.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method for adjustably providing a desirable amount of looseness or slack in the webbing drawn across the user while the seat belt is in a latched condition.